Sunday, September 30, 2007

9/29/07 - Paul Banks, Last Gasp

started out at lucky's roadhouse again, this time the joint was empty (no more $.25 drinks, eh?). went back to car to, uh, fetch something and stepped in ankle-deep mud pit behind lucky's. in sandles. shee-ut. got to use bathroom at cavern for somethin besides pukin', tho. heh heh. joe finally showed up. missed first band - no loss, based on their myspace/purevolume. went back and forth from cavern to lucky's between bands, watchin mr. q make time with ultra-wasted a&m drop-out chick (that's right, darlin, i graduated in '98) who's name we forgot but had bachelorette-party gal friends with s&m gear. how does he do it? must be his stylin' shirts. anyways, the show:

paul banks - this man is a musical genius. listen to his cd - i dare you to disagree. the next rufus wainwright, i tell ya. amazing voice, as i've said before. fantastic songwriting. wish he had closed with "color", instead of sam cooke/beatles/bowie medley. both songs show off his pipes, i just think it's best to close with your own material, especially when it's so goddam strong.

the last gasp - 2nd time to see. excellent, as before. loved the harmonies from the keyboardist. really enjoyed the set. met christian afterwards - super nice guy, gave me their demo cd.

a pacific model - 3rd time to see. some songs in definite radiohead territory, some more ordinary. powerful lead vox. Cure cover - bleh.

pretty good crowd at the cavern, which means the usual annoying louder-than-the-band chatter and scuse-me scuse-me as people try to get to the bar. was entertained by preternaturally short dude with pony tail and goatee makin time with the ladies, or was that his 50-something sugar daddy boyfriend behind him pretending to groove to the music? i don't know, i should be nicer.

2 comments:

Joe said...

I was attest that I also attended this show with Steve pointing a pistol to my head. But I must say that I thorougly enjoyed it. Here's my take on the shows:

Paul Banks---awesome. He appears among the crowd as a quiet, diminutive, unassuming guy. But then he put on his dark sunglasses, walked on stage and rocked the house out!! He opened up with "Stick With What you know". On the CD (highly recommended), the version is only him and a grand piano. The live version is given the full band affect--drums and guitars, and the result was impressive. It's just a song that gets better and better as it goes along. The 2nd-to-last song was "color", and I would agree with Steve that it's better as a closer. He did close with that medley, including a raucious version of David Bowie's "5 years" from his Ziggy stardust era. you can't go wrong with a Bowie cover, my favorite solo artist ever. I talked to paul after the show and he's just a super nice guy. I look forward to the next time he head down here.

Last Gasp---I have to admit that I only saw their last song, as I was stuck at Luckie's bar down the street watching the Q man work his magic with the ladies. I did appear just in time to see them perform "Fashion Statement", their most upbeat song among the 4 selections on their myspace.com page. It was a stirring rendition, and I very much regret missing the rest of the set--sorry guys.

Pacific....--they were the 3rd best show that night. Their cover of the Cure's "Lullaby" was an odd choice. It sounded great, but didn't fit in with their original material.

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